The Big Anxiety festival: mental health, science and the healing power of art

Image in banner: ‘There’s a lot of evidence that art has a lot of impact when it comes to mental health,’ says Prof Jill Bennett. Photograph: Nick Cubbin

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Anxiety can come in many forms: from feeling nervous about giving a presentation, to not wanting to leave the house. But can an arts festival provide some sort of balm for mental health problems?

An ambitious and large scale project, The Big Anxiety festival – a University of New South Wales initiative run over seven weeks in Sydney – is trying to not only get people talking about their mental health, but also to alleviate some of the associated pain.